Welcome to the inquiry with me, Tanya Beckett, one question, four expert witnesses, and an answer.

It's been described as the worst humanitarian crisis on Earth.

23 million people require urgent food assistance.

One of the worst droughts in decades has damaged crops and starved farm animals.

A quarter of the wheat harvest has been lost, and the population now faces a cold, cruel winter.

But international funding has been cut back, and sanctions are hitting hard.

Government employees are not being paid and wonder how long they can continue covering their basic needs without a salary.

This is the situation in Afghanistan, only a few months since the return of the Taliban to power.

So this week in the inquiry, we're asking, how will Afghanistan survive the winter?

Part 1, Afghanistan today.

The signs of the economic crisis are pretty much everywhere.

Businesses say they're far fewer customers than usual.

There are more people begging on the streets.

You get long queues outside banks because there are limits on cash withdrawals.

Our first expert witness is Sakunda Kamani, the BBC's correspondent in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The crisis facing Afghanistan is now so acute, it's engulfing most of its population.

If you had a government job before, if you were a healthcare worker or a teacher,

you'd likely haven't been paid for around four or five months now.

Many of them are still going to work despite that,

but of course life is becoming increasingly difficult.

And that's why we're actually seeing issues like hunger spread from

remote rural areas where they've long been an issue,

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